Page:Anti-slavery and reform papers by Thoreau, Henry David.djvu/84

 A Plea for Captain John Brown. 73 of its labor on repairing that. When I hear it at work soraetimeSj as I go by, it reminds me, at best, of those farmers who in winter contrive to turn a penny by follow- ing the coopering business. And what kind of spirit is their barrel made to hold ? They speculate in stocks and bore holes in mountains, but they are not competent to lay out even a decent highway. The only/r6'e road, the Underground Railroad, is owned and managed by the Vigilant Committee. Tlieij have tunnelled under the whole bieadth of the land. Such a government is losing its power and respectability as surely as water runs out of a leaky vessel, and is held by one that can contain it. ^ I hear many condemn these men because they were ^ so few. When were the good and the brave ever in a 1 majority ? AVould you have had him wait till that time^ came ? — till you and I came over to him ? The very fact that he had no rabble or troop of hirelings about him would alone distinguish him from ordinary heroes.

His company was small indeed, because few could be found worthy to pass muster. Each one who there laid down his life for the poor and oppressed was a picked man, culled out of many thousands, if not millions ; ap- parently a man of principle, of rare courage, and devoted humanity ; ready to sacrifice his life at any moment for the benefit of his fellow-man. It may be doubted if there were as many more their equals in these respects in all the country; — I speak of his followers only; — for their leader, no doubt, scoured the land far and wide, seeking to swell his troop. These alone were ready to step be- tween the oppressor and the oppressed. Surely they were the very best men you could select to be hung.

That was the greatest compliment which this country